The Front (Blu-ray)

(Twilight Time, 2.11.2014)

A rare film starring Woody Allen, but not written or directed by the prolific auteur, The Front is one of the few films to directly tackle the most notorious chapter in Hollywood history: the blacklist. In the era immediately following World War II, dozens of writers, directors, actors, and musicians were prohibited from participating in the film industry because of their (sometimes quite loose) affiliation with progressive causes. Demonized as communists, their professional lives were derailed, sometimes irretrievably. Rather than focus on a victim of the blacklist, The Front revolves around Howard Prince (Allen), a bookie who agrees to put his name on the scripts of a blacklisted friend. He eventually offers this service to several other scribes and becomes the most sought after TV “writer” in New York. This results in some amusing complications, but Howard’s exposure to blacklist victims also lifts him from his own complacency, culminating in an act of defiance that makes for one of the most satisfying endings of the ’70s.

A large part of The Front’s resonance comes from its very real connection to the blacklist itself. As the end credits explain, director Martin Ritt (the underrated filmmaker behind Hud, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and Norma Rae), screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and several members of the cast (Herschel Bernardi, Lloyd Gough, Zero Mostel, Joshua Shelley) were victims of the blacklist. Their lived experience of that phenomenon gives the film an insight and authenticity it might otherwise lack. While some have criticized the film for tackling this very serious subject in a comic manner (according to Bernstein, this was the only way to get the film financed), the consequences of the blacklist are relayed with force and conviction, particularly in the decline of Mostel’s Hecky Brown.

Available exclusively from Screen Archives and the TCM store, this limited edition release from Twilight Time features a typically strong HD transfer, liner notes by Julie Kirgo, and the film’s theatrical trailer. As an added bonus, Kirgo is joined by actress Andrea Marcovicci and Twilight Time co-founder Nick Redman -- himself an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, soundtrack producer, and film historian -- for an extremely worthwhile commentary. While they have little to say about Ritt, they offer fascinating perspective on the blacklist and Woody Allen. Marcovicci has several revealing anecdotes about the latter, but reserves her greatest praise for the extroverted Mostel, whose oil-and-water dynamic with Allen fuels at least one very amusing anecdote. -- Jonathan Doyle